


Hooked

by PlayingTheGameOfThrones



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Disney Princesses, Moana (2016)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-09 08:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8883535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlayingTheGameOfThrones/pseuds/PlayingTheGameOfThrones
Summary: **Moana has been aged up to 19**Moana straightened her shoulders and stepped between the two embroidered rugs that separated her from where her people - and her future husband - had gathered to greet her. "MAUI?" Moana shouted. "MOANA?" Maui answered.





	1. Surprise?

_“WHAT?”_

Moana’s screech set the birds perched atop the hut scattering into the wind.

“Moana, you knew this was the way of things,” her mother reminded her, placing a gentle hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

Moana shook her mother’s hand off and crossed her arms across her chest. “Of course I knew, but I didn’t know it would be so soon!”

Her father stepped forward from the shadowy corner of the hut they shared as a family. “You are going to be chief one day, Moana,” he reminded her. “Today is your eighteenth birthday. It is time for you to marry. Just as I did, just as my father did, just as all our ancestors have done since our island was formed.”

“But I thought I would get to choose,” Moana said, her voice quieter than before, knowing she was losing the battle.

The chief knelt down so he was eye-to-eye with his only daughter. He swept a dark curl off her face and behind her ear, cupping her cheek in his large hand. “These are the sacrifices we must make for our people,” he said, in a voice softer than Moana had ever heard him use. “You know this better than anyone, Moana.”

Moana sighed and let her father take her into his arms. “I know, Father,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut. Although her people had returned to voyaging, there was never a day that Moana was on the island that she didn’t wish she were on the sea, the wind running its fingers through her hair, her sail with its spiral bright against the sky. The sea still called her.

Sina placed her hand atop her daughter’s mop of curls as Moana and Chief Tui separated. “It’s time, Moana,” she said, holding Moana’s feathered tiara out.

Moana took a deep breath, nodded, and allowed her mother to slip the tiara onto her head. She shivered when the feathers tickled her temples. Though the tiara was light, she felt a weight pressing down on her shoulders, and wished, not for the first time, that her grandmother were still here.

 _If you were on the ocean, you would be able to see her,_ Moana thought to herself before banishing the thought to the back of her mind. There would be plenty of time to go to the sea when this was over.

She straightened her shoulders and stepped between the two embroidered rugs that separated her from where her people – and her future husband – had gathered to greet her.

 _“MAUI?”_ Moana shouted.

 _“MOANA?”_ Maui answered.

Moana turned to her father, frowning up at him.

Chief Tui gave a weak smile. “Surprise?”


	2. I Was Told There Would Be Free Food

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Moana and Maui shouted in unison. “ME?” they exclaimed, pointing their index fingers at their chests. “WHAT ARE _YOU_ DOING HERE?”

Mini Maui and Moana looked at each other from their perch on Maui’s chest, and burst into laughter.  


“This isn’t funny,” Maui muttered darkly, flicking them to his back.  


Moana heard her mother chuckle behind her. “It looks like we made a good choice after all.”  


Moana spun on her heel, anger flaring up like a fire behind her ribcage. “Him? Really? Dad?” she asked, turning to her father. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”  


Chief Tui began to laugh, until he saw how red his daughter’s face was turning. The laugh caught in his throat, and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “The island needs someone like Maui, Moana,” he finally said. “You know how dangerous the world can be better than anyone.”  


“Hey, what about me?” Maui asked, crossing his arms and scowling. He looked so much like one of the village boys after being told no that Moana would’ve laughed under ordinary circumstances, but these were anything but ordinary circumstances.  


“What _about_ you?” Moana growled, crossing her arms and scowling, before she realized she was copying Maui’s stance exactly, and settled for balling her fists at her sides.  


Maui could hear all the words Moana wasn’t saying when she flung the accusation at him. He cringed, although he knew she was right – he had not been around much, if at all, since they had returned the heart of Te Fiti together. He had meant to stop by more often, he really had, but time just seemed to get away from him, lately even more than usual. He was immortal, after all. Time passed differently for him.  


But since he’d met Moana, it had passed even differently, even for him. He couldn’t understand it. He didn’t even know how many years it had been since he had last seen Moana.  


“Moana,” he said, rolling her name on his tongue. It tasted as sweet as it always had. “You’re just a kid. You can’t be getting married! Much less to me!”  
Moana threw her hands up in the air. “I am not a child anymore, Maui. I’m eighteen years old. I will be a chief soon.”  


_Eighteen?_ Maui thought. _That can’t be right. It feels like just yesterday she was the little kid that grabbed my ear and dragged me on her canoe._  


But Maui was a demigod. A thousand years ago felt like just yesterday to him.  


Now that he looked closer at the girl standing in front of her, he could see that she wasn’t actually a girl anymore. In fact, she was quite…  


“Maui!” Moana shouted, dragging him out of his reverie. “What are you looking at? We don’t have time for you to zone out right now! This is serious!”  


“Moana,” Chief Tui said, his voice hard. “Your people are waiting for you. Today is your wedding day. You will marry Maui, and you will marry Maui now.”  


Moana narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t over,” she threatened, before grabbing Maui by the arm and dragging him out the door and into the evening.  


It seemed as though the entire village was gathered in the clearing before them, and all of them erupted into cheers at the same time.  


“This is _not_ happening,” Maui whispered through gritted teeth. He wasn’t used to being told what to do. He was Maui, demigod of the wind and sea, not some mortal that people could boss around whenever they felt like it!  


“How are you even here if you didn’t agree to this already?” Moana bit back.  


“I was told there would be free food,” Maui muttered.  


Moana groaned. Mini Maui hid his face behind his hands in shame.


	3. Kids Grow Up

"So," Moana said as she entered her new hut, Maui – her new husband – behind her.

"So," Maui replied, looking down at the ground, down at his hands, anywhere but at Moana – his new wife.

"Now we, uh..."

"Right. Right. Yeah."

"So I'll just take my clothes off..."

"Yeah. Yeah, that would be best."

Moana swallowed her fear and crossed the room to the pallet. She began to methodically undress, first removing her tiara, then her necklace which had once carried the heart of Te Fiti, then the lei her father had placed around her neck. She was reaching for the strings tying her dress when Maui stopped her.

"Wait," he said. Was she hearing things, or was his voice shaking?

"Do you...do you want to undress me?" Moana knew what came next, of course – had always known that, as future chief of Motunui, she would be expected to bear and raise children so one of them could also one day be chief – but she had never expected it would happen like this. Like this, and...with _him_. With Maui. Demigod of the wind and sea. Hero and villain of stories told to her at her grandmother's knee. Had never dreamed that one day he would be her husband, and they would have to do...this.

"I...I can't."

Moana looked back at her husband for the first time since the ceremony. He met her eyes only to quickly look away. Was he...blushing? It was difficult to tell in the near-darkness, but Moana thought he might be. But that was ridiculous. He must have done this a million times, with a million other girls, right?

Unexpectedly, the thought made Moana's stomach twist.

"You can't?" she asked.

"I mean, I can," he clarified, holding his hands out, as though defending himself after being accused of a crime. "I – I could. But I won't. I've...I've never actually..."

Moana frowned. "You...you've never...been with a woman?"

She cringed. Even on her wedding night, she still couldn't say the word.

"What?" Maui sputtered. "No, of course I've been with a woman, I've been with thousands of women, I've sown my wild oats across the ocean."

Moana crossed her arms and tilted her head in disbelief, and Maui sighed.

"Okay, I've never been with a woman." He ducked his head and kicked a small stone with his foot.

"I don't believe you," Moana announced, her tone light, but doubt in her mind. Was it true? How could it be true? I mean, he was Maui, demigod of the wind and sea, hero of men _(and women, a voice in her head chimed in)_. He was immortal. And he was...

"Why would I lie about something like that? I mean, if I were going to lie, I'd say something like, today was the first wedding I've ever been to, or something ridiculous like that."

"Oh my god," Moana exclaimed, trying to hide her giggles behind her hand. "You've never been to a wedding before!"

"I was always a little too busy lassoing the sun so you mortals wouldn't freeze to death every winter, and doing various other awesome demigod things, but yes, I'd never been to a wedding before today."

Moana shook her head. "That explains why, when you were supposed to _challenge_ my father to a fight, you tried to _actually_ fight him."

Maui rolled his eyes. "Laugh all you want, Princess. I'm sure you've been with a man before. It's _easy_ for you to laugh."

"What?" she asked. "Maui, I've never been with a man before. Tonight is my wedding night."

He looked at her like he'd never heard the phrase before.

"You know, wedding night? The first time a girl's supposed to–"

"Whoa, okay, Princess, that's enough of that."

"Maui, listen," Moana said, her voice quiet. She closed the distance between her and her new husband, and reached up to cup his cheek in her palm. "You're my husband now. This is our duty to the people of Motunui."

"But, Moana," Maui protested feebly, taking her hand from his face and holding it in his. It was still so tiny compared to his, just like when she was younger. "The last time I saw you, you were just a kid."

Moana smiled, tears pricking the back of her eyes. She'd forgotten how much she'd missed him all those years, and it all came rushing back now that he was right in front of her, her hand in his, their lives bound together. "Maui, kids grow up."


	4. Eighteen And Foolish

"I've been meaning to ask you something for a long time now," Moana said, color rising in her cheeks. Maui felt his heart skip a beat. "Ever since we first met, actually."

Maui's eyes widened, eyebrows jumping. Was she really going to say it? Of course she was going to say it. I mean, they'd have to do it eventually, not just say it – and he always knew she'd found him attractive from the very first moment she laid her eyes on him. He couldn't blame her. Who wouldn't be?

"All those hooks on the island, and that statue of you in the cave. How long did it take you to make those?" Moana asked with a laugh.

Maui rolled his eyes even as he was relieved she didn't ask it – even though he wasn't sure what _it_ was, just. _It_. "Not what I thought you were gonna ask, Princess." He wondered if that nickname bothered her as much as it used to.

She ignored it. "What did you think I was gonna ask you, _Maui_?" she asked, emphasizing his name, drawing it out like it had more syllables than it did.

Now it was Maui's turn to blush. "Nunya," he quipped, wondering if she remembered him using that joke on their voyage.

 _Probably not,_ he thought. _That was years ago for her now, not the week it feels like to you._

"Nunya business," Moana finished for him, rolling her eyes. She still didn't think he was particularly funny, or particularly clever. At least that hadn't changed. "Come on. I'm your wife now. We can't keep any secrets from each other."

 _If only that were possible,_ he thought. He had been alive a full ten thousand years before Moana was ever born. He had secrets he kept from himself.

But he didn't have to tell her that.

"So?" she asked. "How long did it take?"

"Time passes differently for me than it does for mortals," he reminded her. "I'm not sure how long it took. It could've been ten days or ten years, or even longer."

Moana nodded. "I know I'm only putting off the inevitable," she said quietly, giving voice to the thought swirling unsaid in Maui's head. Not for the first time he wondered if she could read minds. She turned away from him and gathered her hair into her hands. "I'll get undressed now, and don't try to stop me."

_Wait, was that–?_

"Moana," he said.

_"What?"_

"Is that a tattoo on your back?"

Moana glanced over her shoulder at her own back, as if she had forgotten the tattoo was there. In the middle of her back, between her shoulder blades, a black hawk flew across the sky of her skin.

 _A hawk?_ he thought. _For me?_

"Oh," she said, letting her hair down again as if she were ashamed. "Yes. I got it done after my first voyage. After _our_ voyage."

Maui moved closer to her rather than farther away for the first time that day, taking her small hand into his. ( _Her hand's not small,_ he reminded himself. _She's not a little kid anymore. You're just freakishly huge._ ) With his other hand, he brushed her hair away from her back, exposing the tattoo once more. This close, he could even see the tiny hook etched into the hawk's wing.

"It's a hawk?" he whispered, his breath sending tingles across Moana's spine.

"Umm. Yes."

"For me?"

Moana could hear unshed tears in his voice. She had always known when he'd been about to cry, even back when she hadn't known him at all. "There's a tradition in our village," she said, hoping to distract him. "When we die, we believe we come back as the animal we choose as our first tattoo. Like my grandmother came back as a manta ray."

Moana realized telling the story was a mistake as soon as it was too late to correct it.

"And you chose a hawk?" Moana heard what he didn't say: _You chose a hawk...for me?_

When Moana had returned from her journey to restore the heart, she had found herself missing Maui more than she thought she would, had been _thinking_ about Maui more than she thought she would. When the day came for her to receive her first tattoo, just as that day had or would come for every member of her village, she had chosen a hawk with a hook on its wing. She had been big on romantic gestures that year. She couldn't think of anything more romantic than returning as a giant hawk in her next life, so she could spend it with Maui.

She had been seventeen and foolish. And now she was eighteen and foolish, and her new husband had seen her deepest shame.

"I thought you would have chosen something that lives in the sea," he said. "Like a crab." He laughed at the face she made as she remembered Tamatoa. "Or a shark." This time she laughed, remembering the time Maui had been unable to shapeshift correctly. "I mean, it calls to you, right? That's how you put it at least. And it sent you to find me."

Moana was suddenly serious again. "Actually, the ocean hasn't taken much interest in me since I – we – restored the heart." Even as she was saying it, Moana knew it wasn't strictly true. The last time the ocean had acknowledged her had been the last time she'd seen Maui, about three months after their voyage. The ocean left when he did.

"I'm sorry, Moana."

She turned to face him, Maui, demigod of the wind and sea, hero to all, warrior, shapeshifter, trickster, her husband. "Thank you," she said.

"You're welcome," he responded, his eyes softening, and she knew he remembered.


	5. This Might Not Be So Bad

Moana was all of sudden painfully aware of exactly how close Maui was. She could feel his warmth radiating off his body, his breath setting the hairs at the nape of her neck dancing. She barely suppressed a shudder; she was sure her flesh was prickly with goosebumps, and wondered if Maui could see.

 _Of course he can_ , she chided herself. _He's a demigod. He sees everything._

"Moana?" she heard Maui ask. "Are you alright?" She felt his hand, large and heavy, on her shoulder, and before she could stop herself, she jumped away from him.

"I can't do this," she said, shaking her head.

"Moana?" He moved as if to step closer to her, but she flung her hands up, creating a barrier between them that he dared not breach. "Moana, it's me."

"I...I can't," Moana whispered, gripping her grandmother's necklace tightly. "I thought I was ready for this, but I'm not."

Maui nodded, sighing as if relieved. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that."

"Huh?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"I know it's dumb," he said, dropping his eyes to the rug. He was greeted by his own face, woven into the pattern of the rug. It felt like it was mocking him, somehow. "I'm Maui, demigod of the wind and sea. But I'm not ready either."

Moana felt a smile beginning to spread across her face. "You're not?"

"I'm not," he said, finally bringing his eyes to hers. He didn't know what he expected to find in them, but it wasn't what he saw: grateful tears filling her eyes, ready to spill over. "I've lived thousands of lifetimes, and I'm still not ready."

But he couldn't name exactly what he wasn't ready for. Sex? Marriage? Children, which were an inevitability when it came to this kind of thing? Or was it just sex, marriage, children, with _her_? With Moana? The little girl who had once sailed across the horizon to find him?

Moana reached out and brushed her fingers across his chest, absentmindedly, as if she didn't know she was doing it. Maui shivered under her touch, and Moana removed her hand quickly, as if she'd been burned.

"So," Moana said, squeezing the word out from around the lump in her throat, turning away from Maui. She didn't want him to see how startled she'd been at his response to her touch. Not just startled, but...pleased, almost. If that were even possible. "What do we do now?" She flopped down on the pallet.

From beside her, Moana heard a loud, distinct _thump_.

"What was that?" Maui demanded, already heading to the corner of the room where he'd stashed his hook.

Moana laughed. "You're still just as easy to scare as you were when you first found me." She sat up and reached for the basket sitting at the edge of the pallet. Another thump sounded from inside it, and Moana lifted the lid, revealing...the sleek head and bobbly eyes of Hei Hei the chicken.

"Drumstick?" Maui knelt down in front of the chicken. "Long time no see, little buddy!"

Moana watched as Maui scooped the chicken into his arms, the difference in size between them almost comical. She loved the way Maui looked at that dumb old chicken, how gentle he was with him. _He would make a great dad_ , Moana thought suddenly. She shook her head. Where did _that_ come from?

"Wanna feed him?" she asked Maui then, half to keep him entertained, half to keep herself distracted. She retrieved a pouch of seeds from a hidden pocket in her skirt, handing it to Maui.

 _This might not be so bad,_ Moana thought to herself as she watched Maui feed Hei Hei, a smile spreading across his face like the sun.

That is, if she could get her thoughts to behave.  

 

 

 


End file.
